Tim Spicer: A Suspicion of Spies – Tiverton Book Festival

A Suspicion of Spies is awash with stories of adventure, bravery, glamour and exoticism. Biffy was a lifelong friend of Ian Fleming and many have considered him to be the blueprint for Bond.

From Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer OBE, the compelling first biography of  Wilfred ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale – a ruthless and effective spymaster whose career  spanned the Russian Revolution to the Cold War and beyond.

A Suspicion of  Spies is filled with stories of adventure, bravery, and glamour, revealing the complicated intrigues of the world of British intelligence. A lifelong friend of Ian  Fleming, Biffy is considered to be the blueprint for James Bond. 1916, Russia. A 16-year-old Wilfred ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale is working for his father, taking submarines  from Vladivostok to St Petersburg for the Russian Imperial Navy. He takes a submarine out for sea  trials along with a naval dockyard crew he’d never met before. Spotting a group of German ships, he  gives the order to attack and sinks four of them. On returning to Kronstadt, breaking free from an  anti-submarine net with just 30 minutes of oxygen left, he opens the hatch to find every gun in the  port facing him and his crew. Fluent in Russian, he quickly defuses the situation. For this action he is  awarded by Tsar Nicholas II the Order of St. Stanislav and the Order of St. Anne, imperial Russia’s  highest knighthood for military valour and ‘bravery in battle’. Biffy, born and raised in Odessa, soon learnt to operate at all levels of Odessan society. Clearly highly  intelligent, by 16 he was studying Naval Architecture and Naval Engineering in St Petersburg – broadening his education further in the waterfront bars of both Odessa and St. Petersburg. Aged 18, he was engaged by Naval Intelligence as an interpreter on account of his language skills,  English, Russian, French, Polish and German. He would soon grow into a buccaneering member of  the British Secret Intelligence Service in a career spanning forty years which Biffy described as ‘40  years of licensed thuggery.’ Biffy appears in over 60 books and websites and yet no one has ever written the story of his life. As  Tim Spicer says, ‘He was rather like a ghost one knew was there but the apparition never stood still  long enough for a clear view.’ Biffy was a lifelong friend of Ian Fleming and many attribute his influence to the creation of Bond.  The tales of action and intrigue found in this comprehensive biography could be taken straight from  the pages of From Russia with Love, which Biffy acted as ‘consultant’ for.

Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer OBE has led a life  filled with action and adventure. During his twenty years  in the British Army, he saw active service in Northern  Ireland, the Falklands campaign, the Gulf War and the  Balkans, as well as serving in the Far East, Cyprus and  Germany. Key appointments have included Chief of Staff  of an Armoured Brigade, Staff Officer at the Directorate of  Special Forces and Commanding Officer of the 1st  Battalion Scots Guards, among many others.